o-Benzylphenol is useful as a dye leveling agent for polyester fibers. Usually, it is made by treatment of phenol with benzyl chloride or benzyl alcohol in the presence of a strong acid such as aluminum chloride, zinc chloride or sulfuric acid. Unfortunately, this method produces a substantial amount of p-benzylphenol. In addition, the method presents corrosion problems and difficult operating techniques.
It is thus apparent that it would be desirable to have a process which prepares substantially pure o-benzylphenol (that is no para or meta isomers in the product). Our invention is directed to providing such a process.